Everybody's Changing
by AnotherGirlWithAStory
Summary: He had gone down the rabbit hole as his mother would sometimes call it. That happened a lot during the first few months after the war. George would sit amongst the members of his family but wouldn't hear what they were talking about nor would he participate. He would merely look ahead of himself, lost in a daydream.


**Title** : Everybody's Changing

 **Pairing** : George x Angelina

 **Prompts** : A beautiful summer day, a family outing, Christmas, jump in a lake, flying kites, daydreams, pranksters, reading a book, blue, candlelight, surprise, jump, late night, hot chocolate, snowy nights.

 **Characters** : George, Angelina, Fred II, Roxanne & Fred.

 **Word Count** : 1, 287

* * *

It was late at night and outside the snow were slowly falling down from the sky. Angelina were sitting on the couch by the window reading a book. The only source of light was a blue candle that light up the entire room. The flame was magic and gave just enough light so that Angelina could clearly see the words on every page and George didn't have to fumble when reaching for his cup of hot chocolate where it stood on the small table next to him. Smoke had since long stopped coming from the hot liquid indicating that it had cooled down enough. But George didn't seem to notice. Though he was physically sitting down it appeared as if his mind was somewhere else.

Angelina occasionally looked up at him and thought about asking him what he was thinking about. Not that she needed to ask him. He had _that expression_ on his face. The one that told her that he was lost amongst the memories he would only allow himself to occasionally experience. He had gone down the rabbit hole as his mother would sometimes call it. That happened a lot during the first few months after the war. George would sit amongst the members of his family but wouldn't hear what they were talking about nor would he participate. He would merely look ahead of himself, lost in a daydream.

George wasn't reexperiencing the family outing the family had that day in accordance with their normal Christmas-tradition. Though that too was worthy of daydreaming about. The children, as George remembering doing himself, went crazy at the sight of the snow that had started falling at some point during the night.

"Mum, dad…" George forced his eyes open and looked directly into the brown eyes of his son. His black curly hair was a bit too long making it sometimes cover his eyes but Fred was determined not to cut it. There was no denying the enthusiasm in his eyes though he had to swing his head backwards in order to get the hair away. "It's snowing outside."

"Is it now." George replied and yawned.

"Yeah, so hurry and wake up." Fred jumped down from the bed and vanished almost as quickly as he had appeared. "We need to get out there before it disappears again."

The last part he screamed.

"Don't scream, you'll wake up your sister." George called back and were given a sceptical look from Angelina.

"I'm already up dad." Roxanne answered. George looked up at her and couldn't fight the smile that appeared on his face. Her cheeks were rosy and she had a cheeky smile on her face that made her look like a deer in the headlights and failed at looking innocent. Her tiny feet were already in a shade of blue and bits of her red curly hair had gotten wet. "I haven't been outside yet."

Angelina sat up and looked at her daughter with a straight face. "We can see that."

After a rushed breakfast, which Angelina claimed was the most important meal of the day they ended up going outside. There was no containing their crazy children, both Roxanne and Fred began jumping and rolling around in the snow. The soon led to a snowball fight which, much to George's surprise, Angelina joined despite her professed hate for snowball war which had started after her Hogwarts days. For a very good reason she claimed or more specifically _two_ very good reasons.

Eventually they had split up into teams. Fred had stubbornly taken his father hand and refused to let it go until George agreed to be on his team. Fred unlike his sister took competing to a whole new level. His cheeks were red from running around and working hard already before the competition started. George suspected that he would drop to the ground once it was actually time without any energy to join the game and were yet again surprised when his son threw himself into the competition with a newfound energy. And after a while it became clear that Fred wasn't giving up until he had won.

Angelina and Roxanne put up a good fight, that George had to admit. Time went by much quicker than he thought it did. It felt as if he looked down on the snow, working on another snowball and when he looked up his muscles ached and it was already night and the competition ended in a draw. Fred was not happy about that. He crossed his arms over his chest and stomped down on the ground. The grumpy expression on his face only became grumpier when his sister laughed at him and even Angelina seemed to have trouble holding a smile away. That's when he grabbed George's hand and looked up at him.

"Let's go somewhere."

"Where to?" George asked, going along with it.

"Somewhere only we know."

 _Somewhere only we know_.

It was only a phrase. George was even pretty sure that it was a part of a muggle song. It was only something his son had said in the spur of a moment. George knew that. Yet he couldn't stop thinking about it. Maybe because it wasn't the first time someone had told George that.

The entire house was quiet and still. It was a rare experience. It was never quiet during the days. If George wasn't trying to come up with new products for the shop and thus being the source of many explosions, then Fred and Roxanne were running around causing mayhem like the pranksters they were. Just like he and Fred used to. George couldn't stop himself from smiling as he vanished into a memory.

In his daydream, it wasn't Christmas. There were no snow and the lake wasn't frozen. It was summer and as per every summer his parents brought them to the lake. There they would simply let them run and do whatever they felt like. George could practically smell the lake, he could feel the sand against his feet and the sweat as it ran down his forehead. It was a beautiful summer day, no a perfect summer day. Fred, George, Charlie, Bill and Percy had been given a kite to share – Ronald was too young to find it amusing – and the twins were excited to try it out after cooling off from the long ride in the car by jumping into the lake. They were really planning on just swimming for a little bit but somehow a little bit became a lot and when they walked out of the lake Bill had already taken the kite and were running up and down the beach with it. George could remember the disappointment when he realised they would have to wait and as per usual nothing slipped past Fred.

He took his brother's hand and gave him a smile. "Let's go wait until he's done."

"Where?" George asked but followed his twin.

Fred shrugged. "Somewhere only we know."

There were plenty of memories were that one came from and every now and again something would happen that reminded George of one in particular. Not that he really needed reminding. Fred was always with him. Everything around George changed despite the fact that he felt that the world was supposed to stop when Fred died. Eventually he believed that he would change to. The feeling of missing half of himself would eventually go away or if nothing else lessen until it was only sparked by certain moments. But that hadn't happened and George had merely accepted that despite that other things changed he would probably always feel the same, he would never feel complete again, he would never feel entirely _right_.

 **The end**


End file.
